Following the award-winning ‘Slutmonster and Friends’ and ‘Stickybeak’, Jessie Ngaio returns with a brand new boundary-pushing (aka perverted) theatre ritual.
Scientists tried to get us to care about our natural world by teaching us scary numbers. You guys didn’t listen. DIRT CHURCH takes another approach, asking whether the way forward all along was actually via punk ecosexual BDSM.
Come be awestruck by the sacred and the profane.
How would you describe your show to someone who knows very little about it?
Lately I’ve been telling people that the show is based on a question I asked myself “What if a burned out clown and sex worker (ie, myself) invented a nature worshipping religion for misfits and weirdos?” and that the answer to that question is the rituals would be absurd, the sermons would be delivered alongside erotic ecosexual films and the songs would be dirty club bangers, obviously!
What makes it stand out and why should people see it?
The show is visually striking, ridiculous, heartfelt, magical and unique, like a weird little multichromatic jungle beetle. We believe that even if the show isn’t your cup of tea, you won’t forget about it in a hurry because we put the fringe in Fringe.
How long was the process from idea to writing to stage? Any challenges along the way?
The show was conceived of approximately a year ago. There have been many challenges along the way primarily because several cast and crew had to pull out due to health issues which has resulted in us having to pivot from our plans so many times that I am now bent into a permanent figure of eight.
What attracts you to Fringe?
I’ve always struggled to fit my art practice into one box or genre, I find Fringe is a good place for neuroqueer weirdos such as myself, people are a bit more accepting of art that is weird, experimental and genre-blending.
How would you describe your relationship with the audience and what do you love the most about live performance?
Years ago, when myself and my collaborators, Wes Gardner and Lucas Heil, created our first show “Slutmonster and Friends” in 2012, we received some unexpected and immediate success for that show.
At the time, the attention terrified me so much that I couldn’t eat and lost weight during our show run. I didn’t perform live again for many years until in 2018 when I underwent a month-long training in red nose clown with Giovanni Fusetti who used to always say to us that we waste a lot of energy fighting our emotions and instead to feed them to our clowns. The clown training gave me techniques to harness my emotions and to connect with audiences. Now, when I am on stage, I’m still pretty terrified but I feed that fear into my characters and my characters all love the audience very much, so the fear becomes an energy of excitement.
Who would you say have been your biggest inspirations?
Some of my biggest human inspirations are ecospiritual activist Joanna Macy, science fiction author Octavia Butler, singer and “drag terrorist” Christeene, performance artist and ecosexual clown Emma Maye Gibson AKA Betty Grumble (who I was lucky to receive some mentoring from). Some of my biggest non-human inspirations are coral reefs, tropical rainforests and swamps.
What are three things that would surprise people to learn about you?
That I used to be so shy that I struggled to speak. That I once secretly but seriously considered becoming a Buddhist nun. That I only became an artist because dropping out of high school made my childhood dream of becoming a veterinarian unlikely.
What do you love to most about performing at Melbourne Fringe?
The open-minded audiences who are seeking something strange.
What comes after the Fringe Festival for you?
I’m going to take summer off to snorkel, spend time with my lovers and collaborate with others for fun rather than outcomes. My collaborator Lucas Heil and I are also pondering starting a web series where I teach art lessons and I am flirting with the idea of turning Dirt Church into an online project where I upload smutty films with activist messages.
DIRT CHURCH takes place amongst an ornate altar of rubbish. Jessie is joined on stage by her faithful rotbeast, co-deviser Sian Horrocks, whose day job is spent as a deceased estate specialist. Together, their denomination is one founded by ecofeminist queer sapphics and true experts in decay.
Only Jessie and her compost cardinal can lead you through our current darkness. With her signature raw, no-holds-barred willingness to take audiences right to the edge and move through the trouble together, Jessie’s work is a balm for the soul
September 29 – October 3
https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/whats-on/events/dirt-church
